[Treatment of underage bone marrow donors. Psychological aspects (author's transl)].

The psychic stress of underage bone marrow donors was investigated in 4 characteristic cases. Three of the recipients suffered from acute leukemia. One female patient died 21 days after transplantation, a further patient had a high grade panmyelopathy. The significance of the surgical removal of bone marrow in the inner experience of the donor and his method of psychical working out are described with reference to the psychological findings. The younger donors deny the universal feeling of helplessness occurring in bone marrow transplantation by phantasies of grandeur and defend their aggressive impulses regressively, whereas in adolescents different modes of defence predominate more in keeping with reality.